The Shakespeare Myth Dismissed

William Shakespeare did not write the plays that carry his name. He couldn't have done. A simple boy from the shires, with a basic education and who never left England - how could he have written such lyrical, thought-provoking material? How could he have known, in immense detail, about locations in the rest of Europe and quote from rare literary works kept hidden from the public? Shakespeare is a myth, a manifestation of tourism, literary affectation and mistaken historical interpretation by Victorian "experts" whose work still holds sway today. Within weeks of starting my Drama course at university, my head of department made a point of dispelling this myth. I remember him explaining how the house in Stratford-on-Avon, acclaimed as the Bard's birthplace, hadn't existed at the time! Of course, the myth has become so real now, it takes a leap of faith to question the truth but that's what I'm going to do here. I'm going to dismiss the Shakespeare myth and present you with the facts that contain the truth. William Who? First of all, let's deal with the name. In Elizabethan England, plays were frequently written as a collaborative venture by members of any company. According to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre's website , there are thirty-eight plays, 154 sonnets and two lengthy narrative poems. The Taming of the Shrew was first performed in London in 1592. The Two Noble Kinsmen was performed in 1614, two years before the Shakespeare died, back in Stratford. That is a hell of a lot of writing in twenty-two years. Especially when the length of the original Folio editions were much longer than appear on stage today. The original Hamlet script demanded four hours! Collaboration made all this possible. So did rampant plagiarism. It was common to "lift" scenes, speeches and situations from other sources. Few of the plots are original, mainly taken from classic tales dating back to Greek theatre in many cases. At other times, from contemporaries. We might call it stealing but it's way more likely the original writers were part of the writing "team" - just like you get on TV now, where scripts are a collaborative process, even though one person may receive the credit. How do we know this? Because of a tradition from the time . Any script written as a collaborative venture was credited to a Mr Shake-spear . Everyone would know this wasn't one man but the work of a group of writers. It goes a long way to explain why there are so many, wildly different, spellings and handwriting styles attributed to this name. Much of the play would be improvised in early productions, written down as things were polished. It explains all the mistakes . There are a lot of them. One from personal experience. I was cast as Benvolio in a university production (directed by the Head of Drama I mentioned). The mistake is a big one. Benvolio vanishes as a character in Act III, Scene 1. In Act IV, the character of Balthasar appears, a character never previously mentioned. Likely the same character, both starting with a B and with the same role. A simple typo when it came to recording the script. So, if William Shakespeare wasn't the author but rather a name that suggested collaborative writing, who did write the plays? Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford This theory has been around for a long time and dismissed by some scholars but I want to show you how the theory carries greater credibility than some young guy from Warwickshire with a dodgy dad who got in trouble with the law. His son would emulate this criminal intent when he was caught poaching on the Charlecote estate - the only reference to the guy from Stratford. Edward de Vere was a writer and something of a man-about-town. He was a ward, and later son-in-law, of Lord Burghley, Queen Elizabeth I's Secretary of State and therefore a regular attendee of her Court. It would explain why she enjoyed having his plays performed for her - far more likely than some obscure guy from Warwickshire! His relationship with his father-in-law is important. Lord Burghley had an extensive, well-stocked library. The man was an academic and wrote accordingly. Burghley's Precepts was a book, written around 1585, and contained advice or guidelines intended for his son, Robert. It's fatherly advice, later published in 1616. One example - "To thine own self, be true." Recognise it? It's a line from Hamlet, spoken by Polonius as he offers advice to his departing son, Laertes. Fatherly advice. Also in Lord Burghley's library, the "Geneva Bible" - the first authorized Bible in English, that pre-dated the King James version we use today. Banned by Queen Mary, the translation took place while its writers worked in exile, in Geneva. Copies were rare and highly prized. Phrases from its text also appear in Hamlet, 'manicules' (margin notes) written by Burghley, also get used. Because of its value, the book never left Burghley's library. That Stratford guy could never have seen it nor use the exact phrases it employs. De Vere's network of friends and associates gave him access to a lot of people who provided links to the plays and their references. One example - the Westcoats Boys (choir boys from St Paul's cathedral) performed plays - such as The History of Errors. A play about two pairs of twins who arrive in the same city, mistaken identities lead to comic capers. The very same plot as The Comedy of Errors. Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, offers another reason for discounting Shakespeare as an author. Those two narrative poems I mentioned, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, were dedicated to this man. In a sonnet he's believed to be the infamous 'fair youth' that places questions about the author's sexual orientation. The critical thing to keep in mind here - it would be inconceivable for a common man from the shires having any contact with a member of the aristocracy, certainly not an intimate one. The risk would be too great. As it was, the letters between Wriothesley and De Vere weren't published until after both men had died - and against their wishes, set down in their wills. What is significant is the collection of De Vere's values that appear in his other letters and writings. The authorship is obvious. The Plays and their References If you believe Shakespeare wrote the plays, you must address this question with a convincing answer. For a guy who never left England, how did he know so much about so many places in Europe? The references that appear in the texts, the locations, the people, the imagery - these are things only travellers would know. More than that, travellers who had the right contacts to visit the right places. For the young men of English aristocracy, it was traditional to go on the Grand Tour - to visit the historic and cultural capitals of Europe. De Vere went on the Grand Tour. Any one of the Comedies share identical situations and characters that feature in the Commedia dell Arte - improvised plays that were hugely popular across Europe. De Vere lived in the French Court of Henry III in 1575-76 - which was when the Commedia visited to perform for the king. They never visited Britain. The arrogant Pantolone features in characters like Malvolio, Arlecchino is Dromio in Comedy or Errors or Touchstone in As You Like It. The situations: mistaken identity, pride coming before a fall, love conquering all, fools and idiots being made to look stupid - these were all stock-in-trade scenarios for the Commedia and feature in every single Comedy. Let's get more specific and use The Merchant of Venice, written in 1597, when De Vere was in Venice . The location of the true story of Ribeiro, a Venetian Jew whose daughter married a Christian. Angry at his daughter's (perceived) betrayal he takes her and her husband to court. Like Shylock, he loses the case. However, the lawyer who defends the couple lived on the banks of the Brenna river, at Belmont, exactly the same place as Portia describes in the play. This lawyer was actually known to De Vere and would have told him about the case. In A Winter's Tale, the theatrical device of the play-within-a-play is used (as it is in Hamlet). It is about the murder of Gonzago, who is killed by having poison tipped into his ear. An unusual method, until you discover this actually happened! De Vere was told about it by his friend Romano, with whom he was staying in Mantua . A family member had been killed that way. In the same house was a huge tapestry, depicting an event from the Rape of Lucretia, the source of that narrative poem I mentioned earlier, a scene which features heavily in the poem. While staying in Sienna , De Vere wrote about watching a performance of a play called The Deceived. The plot centred on a pair of twins, with the usual mistaken identity theme, who end up in the same royal court, both believing their sibling to be dead. Yes, it's the plot of Twelfth Night. In the cathedral in Sienna is a famous circular marble mosaic, it has been copied and appeared in other churches subsequently but this location was the original (and yes, there is a church in Gloucestershire with a similar image but it is much later). Called The Seven Ages of Man, it appears in As You Like It and likely written in 1599, after De Vere returned to England. I could go on. Each time asking the same question - how would William Shakespeare know these things without ever having visited these places? OK, just one more! In Romeo and Juliet, there's a reference to meeting in a sycamore grove in Verona and yes, it really did exist! The Epilogue You could ask why Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, is not recognised as the rightful author. While there are references to people of the time stating that he DID write, there is nothing definitive to link de Vere directly to the plays. Why not? It may be down to social standing. Playwrights were not held in high regard - think tabloid reporters! It would be most unseemly for a member of the aristocracy, the son-in-law of Elizabeth I's chief minister - to be doing such things. Yes, the Queen liked having the plays performed, no doubt knowing who wrote them - but that was all within the secrecy of her Court. For the common man and woman, better to have some generic name attributed to the plays, to avoid embarrassment. Imagine a member of the British Royal Family (like Prince Edward, he performed in theatres!) writing plays - I'm sure he'd be told to use a pseudonym! Finally, to dispense with the whole Stratford issue. The enigmatic message in the town's church, concerning Shakespeare, is open to interpretation and could be read in such a way to reinforce what I'm saying here. Perhaps the best fact is the one to end this commentary. Shakespeare's so-called contemporary, Ben Jonson's poem, written in 1623 describes him as 'the swan of Avon'. Elsewhere, the man is called the Bard of Avon quite often. Yet it isn't referring to the town situated on the banks of that river. No. Avon was another name for Hampton Court , where Elizabeth spent much of her reign and where the plays were performed. It had nothing to do with towns in Warwickshire or their delinquent citizens! I write fantasy novels, you can find out about them by clicking the image: